Voice!

Hey kiddos! As you’re all finishing your applications to Wesleyan and other colleges, we’ll be busy studying for finals! Yes, when classes are over tomorrow afternoon/evening, reading week officially commences! Six days of hanging out with friends, writing papers, studying for finals, and attending fun social events to de-stress and close out the semester! In previous years, reading week has certainly been a blast for me. I don’t think I’ve socialized with so many people in the library in an attempt to put off my work! On Tuesday night, we’re having the ever-so-popular, bi-yearly “breakfast at midnight” at Usdan, the new university center! So excited! Other highlights of the week include

- the “primal scream” Monday at midnight (to release all tension and frustration built on over the semester, Wes students will emerge from their dorms/libraries/rooms/etc. at the stroke of midnight, screaming at the top of their lungs outside for a full minute – it’s really interesting to be around so many people who are ready for finals!)

- music concerts

- dance performances

- comedy troupe shows

- and much, much more!

It’s that time of the year!!!

CHEERS!

H. Rizk ‘08
Senior Interviewer

Hannukah: Hannukkah: Chanukah: Channukkah: Hanukkah: Chanukkah: Hanukah: Chanuka: Hannuka: Channuka: Hanukka: Chanukka: Hannukka: Channukka

No matter how you spell it, Channukkah is an awesome time of the year. For the first time in years, all 8 days of Channukkah fall during the Wesleyan University Academic Year and the Jewish Community has thought of lots of fun ways to celebrate.

This year the Wesleyan Jewish Community will be hosting communal candle-lighting in different lounges and locations throughout campus. And yes, there will be chocolate gelt and dreidels. All are invited.

Dates and locations:

• Tuesday, Dec. 4: Olin lobby
• Wednesday, Dec. 5: Nics lounge
• Thursday, Dec. 6: SciLi lobby
• Friday, Dec. 7: Bayit
• Saturday, Dec. 8: Usdan, ground floor
• Sunday, Dec. 9: Butt C lounge
• Monday, Dec. 10: Bayit
• Tuesday, Dec. 11: WestCo lounge

And, there is a huge annual Channukkah Party in the Bayit ( Jewish Program House ). This is always a well attended event ( by celebrators and non-celebrators alike ) with campus bands, home made latkes, and gelt galore.

So, to all celebrating: Happy Channukkah.

To all: Have a wonderful Holiday Season and a Safe New Year!

Emily Einhorn ‘08
Senior Interviewer

Whether or not you choose to take a writing course at Wes (It’s your choice: no core curriculum! Woo!), writing is at the heart of almost every class here. For some students, the lack of a freshman writing seminar is liberating; however, many others worry that their skills are not up to Wesleyan’s high standards. If you are a member of the latter group, Wesleyan offers resources to that can help:

• The Writing Workshop: This is the epicenter writing resources at Wesleyan. Stop by the office and meet with a writing tutor or peruse sample essays and writing resources. Workshop tutors also hold satellite drop-in sessions throughout campus. Check out the schedule here.
• Writing Course Tutors: Attached to a specific course, these tutors are excellent resources for course and dicipline-specific writing help. Every course tutor is well versed in the specific subject of the course and/or the department. Course tutors are often associated with FYI courses.
• Writing Mentors: Unlike workshop and course tutors, writing mentors work repeatedly with the same students to help them improve their writing skills. Students and their mentors are encouraged to meet as often as possible to work on any writing assignment. This is an excellent way for less experienced writers to work one-on-one with someone who knows the student’s writing intimately and can facilitate growth.

Additionally, the English department offers “The English Essay,” a course on developing your non-fiction essay writing skills. This course is especially helpful for non-native speakers.

For more information, check out the Writing Program’s website.

And for those of you who dream of being published in The Atlantic Monthly or other media outlets, head over to WesMaps and check out the amazing creative writing courses (numbered between 130 and 170) we’re offering this year.

Justin Holzwarth ‘08
Senior Interviewer

One of the great things about liberal arts colleges is the opportunity to study a whole variety of things. At Wesleyan, this doesn’t stop at our open curriculum or annual course catalog of over 1000 classes. There is a strong commitment here to interdisciplinary learning; that is, the combination of several seemingly separate fields of study that coalesce on a particular topic of study (Peter Hill has already talked about one– the College of Letters– which is a more broadly-focused interdisciplinary program unique to Wesleyan). Some examples include:

• African-American Studies: …”Majors are required to take courses from a variety of disciplinary areas, including literature, the social sciences, and the arts. Each major also concentrates in a specific discipline or in a particular thematic area…”
• American Studies: “…The complexity of culture and of its historical development is such that its analysis requires the intellectual tools of more than one discipline and the interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives emerging in American Studies and other interdisciplinary fields…”
• Medieval Studies: “…the program may also provide a framework for students wishing to cross the somewhat arbitrary temporal, topical, and geographical boundaries of medieval studies in order to consider such problems as relationship between classical and medieval literature or art or the broader history of the preindustrial European studies…”
• Science in Society: “…an interdisciplinary undergraduate major program that encourages integrated study of the sciences and medicine as institutions, practices, material cultures, intellectual achievements, and constituents of culture and politics…”
• Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies: “…encourages students to explore and critique past and present cultural structures of power, focusing in particular on the social construction of gender as a category of analysis within the broader matrix of race, class, ethnicity, and sexual identity…”

These are just a handful of the interdisciplinary majors available to you at Wes. And if you don’t find one that suits your fancy, you can arrange to design your own!

Jessie Spector ‘08
Senior Interviewer

Every time I post, it seems like I’m pumping up Wesleyan’s arts scenes. But now I have confirmation from that original organ of US youth culture–yes, that’s right, Rolling Stone Magazine. Of their “10 Artists to Watch in 2008,” not one but TWO of said artists were graduates of Wesleyan’s music program. MGMT (say “Management”) graduated in 2005. Andrew’s senior project was a musical-theatrical battle of God Vs. The MGMT, where the latter used a 10 foot tall iPod as a weapon. Now they’re signed to Columbia.

I know significantly less about Santogold, but she graduated from Wes before my time, and according to the big RS,Bjork is a big fan of her work.

A parent asked me at an info session last week, “Do people have success in the arts after they graduate?” Does Rolling Stone count as success?

While Wesleyan Professors are some of the best there are (Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics Gary Yohe, for example, recently won the Nobel Prize for his work with Al Gore on Global Warming ), it is sometimes nice to bring a new perspective to campus. Fortunately, Wesleyan has AWESOME lectures with top notch academics, entertainers, creators, and authors that are some of the best in the world.

A small sampling of some of the best speakers to come to campus in the past four years:

Music and Art:

Dar Williams ‘89 – a folk singer-songwriter

Patti Smith – singer-songwriter, poet, musician, who was one of the women most influential in the birth of punk rock.

Sol LeWitt - minimalist and conceptual artist specializing in wall drawings with exhibitions in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art.

Amiri Baraka - author and poet, former Poet Laureate of New Jersey.

Books and Literature:

Art Spiegelman - comics artist, editor, and Pulitzer-Prize winner for his best selling graphic memoir, Maus.

Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket ‘92 – author, screenwriter, and musician. Best known for his children’s series A Series of Unfortunate Events. He has played accordion with The Magnetic Fields.

Eric Schlosser - author best known for Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness.

Journalism and Politics:

Ralph Nader - consumer advocate and presidential candidate.

Seymour Hersh – Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist and author.

Amy Goodman – progressive broadcast journalist and host of the radio program “Democracy Now!”

Madeline Albright - former United States Secretary of State.

Film and Television:

Joss Whedon ‘87 – Academy-Award nominated writer and director famous for his show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Alexander Payne – Academy- Award winning director and screenwriter best known for Election.

Michael Bay ‘86 – director and producer best known for The Rock, Transformers, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor.

Paul Weitz ‘88 – director and screenwriter best known for American Pie, American Dreamz, and In Good Company.

Jonathan Demme – Academy- Award winning director, producer, and writer best known for Silence of the Lambs, Stop Making Sense, and Philadelphia.

Martin Scorsese – Academy-Award winning director, producer, and writer best known for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Departed.

and… finally… gracing our campus this coming Thursday …

Robin Williams – Academy-Award winning actor and comedian best known for Mork and Mindy, The Birdcage, Patch Adams, Jack, Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Will Hunting, and Dead Poet’s Society.

Enjoy!

Emily Einhorn ‘08 and Jeff Wong ‘08
Senior Interviewers

Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about internships on campus. While Wesleyan isn’t in midtown Manhattan, there are a lot of opportunities for work on campus and in the Middletown area. Students can gain experience in fields they’re interested in pursuing or build specific skill sets outside the classroom through student groups and organizations, as well as a huge number of on- and off-campus volunteer, work, and internship opportunities. These more practical experiences, often paid, can complement work in the classroom, extending the thinking, reasoning, writing, and research skills students gain in the classroom to real-world situations.

While there are far more options at Wesleyan than I can list here (or remember), I’ve gathered a few of them for your perusal. Some especially good places to look are the Financial Aid Office’s work study job postings and the Office of Community Service’s volunteer listings.

Some internship/work/experience building opportunities at Wes:

Peer Leadership/Organizing/Administrative:

• ResLife Residential Advisors, House Managers, and Head Residents
• Office of Student Activities and Leadership Development Leadership Intern
• Queer Community Intern
• Student of Color Coalition Intern
• Student Judicial Board
• Senior Interviewers
• Tour guides
• Career Resource Center Peer Career Advisors
• Student Academic Resources Network Peer Advisors

Writing/Research:

• Writing Workshop Tutors
• Research with professors/labs
• Middlesex County Historical Society Intern
• Argus student newspaper
• Wesleyan University Press Internship

Arts:

• Davison Art Center Curatorial Internship
• Davison Art Center museum internships
• Second Stage student theater production company
• Oddfellows Playhouse TAs
• Green Street Arts Center TA or volunteer
• Center for the Arts Marketing, Programming, Box Office Interns
• Film Board – students who run the Wesleyan Film Series

 Health/Science:

• Volunteer EMTs in Cromwell, CT after a training course at Wes
• Community Health Center
• WesWell (Office of Health Education) Peer Health Advocates

Activism/Environment:

• Environmental Organizers Network
• Long Lane Farm
• Student Organizing Center Intern

Education/Tutoring:

• KidCity Children’s Museum volunteer
• Community Tutoring (T-Square, Woodrow Wilson Middle School, etc.)

Peter Hill ‘08
Senior Interviewer

Breaking News!

President Michael Roth has just announced a new plan to make attending Wesleyan more affordable!!!

We’ve been excited about Roth since he was named to the Presidency – he has gone out of his way to listen to student voices. His blog has given us access to his thoughts, and has allowed us to give him immediate feedback. He has visited us in our homes, eaten in our dining halls, gone to our events, and played with his dog on the green in front of College Row. Now, on the eve of his Inauguration, he has started to make some lasting changes, with real repercussions for the next generation of Wesleyan students.

From the article:

“Beginning with the first-year class enrolling in the fall of 2008, most students whose total family incomes are $40,000 per year or less will receive an aid package that substitutes grants for any loan obligation. Beginning with the same class, all other students who receive aid will graduate with a four-year total loan indebtedness reduced by an average of 35 percent. ”

Also, see The Argus’ take on it here.

As Roth himself put it:

“Access to a Wesleyan education for students from all backgrounds has long been one of the core values of this community. It remains one of our highest priorities.”

Go Wes!

Jacqueline Chapman ‘08
Senior Interviewer

One thing that was super important to me when I was applying to college was the ease with which I would be able to study abroad. I’m sure that many of you are looking forward to college in order to take many exciting and challenging classes as well as to broaden your intercultural literacy by spending time overseas.

Here at Wes, study abroad is extremely encouraged. As early as freshman year there are meetings about different places that students study, complete with first hand accounts from those who have studied abroad. Students can go abroad as early as the second semester of their sophomore year and as late as the first semester of their senior year, though many of us go some time during our junior year. There are both semester long and year long, single country programs available or you can mix programs and spend one semester in one country and another in a different country. The Office of International Studies here on campus is super helpful in helping to figure out not only how long to go abroad for, but also where to go.

Not only are Wesleyan students encouraged to go abroad in general, but they are also encouraged to push the boundaries and study in unique locations. While the four programs in Paris, Madrid, Bologna, and Regensburg, Germany that Wesleyan faculty run themselves are located in Western Europe, Wesleyan sponsors over 120 other programs in almost every location imaginable. There are great programs in China, Egypt, Ghana, Chile, Peru, Australia, Denmark and so many others. These programs might be ones on which you travel around with a group of American students and have professors hired specially to teach you, direct enrollment courses where you enroll directly into a university in that country or a combination of both. While I studied abroad in Paris on the Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Paris, half of my classes were at the Wesleyan headquarters and half were at Paris VII, a Parisian university. It was a great experience because I got to compare classroom and teaching styles in Paris to ones here in the US and meet cool French students. If for some reason Wesleyan doesn’t offer or sponsor a program in a country where you’d like to study, you can petition to go on a program- with a solid reason for going and a clear itinerary, odds are it’ll be approved.

Once students come back from abroad, they are asked to record their experiences and give suggestions and comments about the programs. This is great for future study-abroaders because in the Office of International Studies there are binders upon binders filled with great information about each program that helps others decide which program is right for them.

Studying abroad was such a great and eye-opening experience, and I encourage you to check out the Office of International Studies website to find out more information about the different programs that are available to Wesleyan students.

Petra Groeneveldt ‘08
Senior Interviewer

The College of Letters (COL) is one of Wesleyan’s many exciting interdisciplinary programs, and one of the main reasons I, for one, chose to come study at Wes. Despite the grandiose name, the COL is organized like most other departments, with many classes open to non-majors, a great series of first-year courses, and an amazing faculty. The COL’s areas of focus are literature, philosophy, and history, with a strong emphasis on foreign language and creative thought. With its interdisciplinary approach, the COL offers a wide range of courses, including “Francophone Uses of America in Literature and Film,” “Dante and Medieval Culture,” and “Theories and Fiction of Androgyny” to name a few from this spring’s course catalog. The COL was also the home of Wesleyan’s most infamous course (no longer offered), “Pornography: Writing of Prostitutes.”
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